


Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow

by hbomba



Category: Lost Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:58:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1657328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hbomba/pseuds/hbomba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. An exploration of zombie tropes with Lost Girl characters. Usual rules apply = Doccubus, even in a zombie apocalypse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a departure from my usual, but I hope you all will read and enjoy.

The generator had attracted some unwanted attention. Moaning filtered through the paper-thin walls as Bo and Kenzi stuffed supplies into a pair of bags. Lauren stood behind them double checking the supplies in her med kit. It had been 17 days since the first reported illness. Kenzi loaded her crossbow as Bo unsheathed her sword. The generator sputtered and the lights dimmed before falling silent. The darkness enveloped them.

There was a shuffle of feet and then a match strike. The flame lit the room suddenly and the women huddled together. 

“I told you we shouldn’t have used the generator.” Kenzi finally spoke.

“In my defense, we don’t have a flashlight and I’m tired of creeping around in the dark,” Bo countered.

“I think we need to be focusing on how we’re going to get back to the car,” Lauren said.

It had been Kenzi’s idea to backtrack to the clubhouse because she knew there were supplies, hoping that they hadn’t been pilfered by passing gangs in the days since they left. 

“Did you get what we came for?” Bo asked Kenzi.

Things were the same as the day they left. Charred by Molotov cocktails, sofa flipped, magazines shredded like confetti scattering the floor. Kenzi prowled the kitchen. “Yeah, yeah, give me a minute.” She rustled through the cabinets. “Aha!” she exclaimed. “Got it,” she said, stuffing the object into her backpack. 

Bo peered through the wood planks nailed over the window. “A dozen on the lawn, five at the car and a shitload coming up the road,” Bo said, tapping her finger on the stud in the wall. “We gotta roll, Kenz.”

Kenzi appeared behind her. “Okay, Skeeter, where we rolling to?”

“Higher ground,” Bo decreed. Bo led the charge through the front door. She swung the katana with a ferocity like no other. It was on her third beheading when a crossbow bolt sailed past her head. “Jesus, Kenz, watch where you’re pointing that.”

Kenzi crawled under Bo’s arm and into the back seat. Lauren took the passenger seat and when Bo had done away with the fifth infected, she took the helm and brought the Camaro to life again.

“So when did we decide higher ground was the plan?” There was a rustle from the back seat where Kenzi had her very own urban sprawl happening.

“Last night, Lauren told me about this cabin in the woods--”

“She did, did she?” Kenzi’s tone was bitter and she kicked the back of the passenger seat in the Camaro. 

“What are you eating?” Bo asked.

“Nothing.” Kenzi tried to hide her mouthful of pastry. Lauren reached into Kenzi’s bag and pulled out a box of pop tarts. “Hey!” she yelped, swinging at the blonde holding her prize. 

Bo’s eyes met Kenzi’s in the rear view mirror. “And this is why you don’t get to make the decisions about where we go.” 

They sat in relative silence until Bo turned on the radio. The Camaro roared as they sped onto the highway, dodging stopped cars in every lane, the trick was not to stop unless you absolutely had to and there was no way in hell Bo was going to stop on a highway full of deserted cars. Their drivers can’t have gone far. The moon shone like a sun in the night sky, bright, white, like high beams, illuminating the ditches as they drove. 

The outbreak started in a human pharmaceutical company’s research department in the heart of the city. An hour after initial exposure, the virus had replicated itself over three hundred times. In the hours to follow, they would see the zombie apocalypse go from joke to reality as friends fell to the zombie menace. Fae or human, it didn’t matter, one bite from the infected and they were done for. But Fae infected were literally ticking time bombs who, with their glowing eyes would explode on contact. Lauren hypothesized that the infected Fae were unable to harness their abilities and therefore self-destruct. Of course, the impending commotion would alert the hordes to their location and they’d be in for a night of fighting. Lauren would rather see them get safely to the cabin before dawn.

With one hand, Bo pulled a silver foil pouch from the box of Pop Tarts before tossing the box into the back. She ripped open the foil pouch with her teeth and passed a pastry to Lauren who was looking unsure.

“She doesn’t even want it,” Kenzi harped. 

“Shut up, she does, too.” Bo making little progress as she drove around the cars on the highway, paused momentarily and looked at Lauren before taking a bite. “It’s strawberry. It’s good.”

“I’ve had Pop Tarts before,” Lauren said defensively. “I prefer the chocolate ones.”

Lauren looked at the silent pair beside her and Bo spoke again. “Give her a chocolate tart.”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kenzi sat back and nibbled on the pastry.

“Kenzi,” Bo warned. 

“Fine.” Kenzi dug into the bag and pulled out another box of the illusive Pop Tarts. She snatched the strawberry tart from Lauren’s hand from above and replaced it with a chocolate tart.

Lauren smiled happily at the first bite. She hadn’t eaten one of these since she was a kid, a kid at a friend’s house because her parents would never buy anything with refined sugars in it. She wondered if her parents were safe. Who was she kidding, she knew they were dead. Her parents were not built for roughing it and there’s no way they had learned hand to hand combat since she saw them last. She looked at Bo who was happily noshing on a baked treat they had literally risked their lives for.   
__

Bo had saved her life no less than five times.

The first time her life was in jeopardy, she welcomed it. The Lich had held his knife against her throat and she looked into Bo’s tearful eyes feeling nothing but peace before Bo had stood and revealed her true powers. 

Now, sitting in a bucket seat beside Bo, the feeling came back to her. The awe she still felt was overwhelming and so was the inexplicable feeling of pride.

The next time, Bo had fought poor Nadia, or the Garuda if you wanted to get technical about it. She had thrown Lauren against the wall, choked her before coming at her full force when Bo silenced it with her blade.

The third time, in Hecuba prison when she had washed the Skunk Ape away to deliver the Wombly. The Amazons were going to tear her apart before Bo used her lips to discern the sex of the Warden.

More recently, Bo had rescued her from Taft’s Fae prison. She had saved Aife and Dyson and any number of Fae imprisoned there, but Bo had held Lauren’s hand all the way out of the compound as if to say don’t ever leave me again. She also protected her from the blood thirsty Fae who called for her execution because she abandoned the Light to work with a villain like Taft. They went into hiding for months on end. Lauren would never forget the catacombs at the Dal for their hospitality. Even if she had to feed the under Fae. 

And finally, the fifth time. She had followed Bo into battle, her med kit at the ready. They weren’t prepared for the ambush that flooded in behind them. Lauren pushed the infected away as Bo swung her sword with authority, beheading all in her range. It was a gruesome end to what she knew wasn’t quite life anymore.

It was a time when they were less prepared than they were now, less aware of their weaknesses. It was a time when Bo got separated from Kenzi, and Lauren hadn’t developed her inner slugger yet. And soon enough, Lauren was bloodied and hanging onto life by a thread. Bo had dragged her into an abandoned convenience store and held her as she cried. With so few uninfected crossing their path, Bo was as good as human. She was just as vulnerable to their attacks with no way to heal. 

“Let me go,” Lauren whispered.

“No,” Bo shook her head, tears streaming down. “You’re not leaving me.”

Bo cradled Lauren’s head against her shoulder and sobbed.

“I’ll be okay,” she reassured.

“No. I can fix this.”

Bo drew Lauren into a kiss, a soft press before her lips closed over Lauren’s. She rocked her back and forth, lifting her chin and expelling her chi into Lauren’s open mouth. Lauren gasped, life filling her veins once again. Her revitalization had come at a price. Bo was depleted and far from fighting shape. So they had locked themselves in the cash room for a week as Bo drank from Lauren a little more with each passing day until she was renewed. Locked in that tiny room, away from the end of the world, they had made love repeatedly. It was a practical exchange as much as a passionate one. There wasn’t much time or occasion for sex in the zombie apocalypse. And there was even smaller chance of getting ten minutes to oneself with Kenzi around.

“What’s up, Doc?” Kenzi leaned in between the front seats and startled Lauren out of her memories. “You gonna eat that?” She pointed to the half-eaten Pop Tart dangling in Lauren’s hand.

“What? No, take it.” Lauren held the tart out for the younger woman.

Kenzi snatched the Pop Tart and fell back into the back seat, moaning, “Are we there yet?”

“Get comfortable, Kenz, it’s gonna be awhile.” Bo said, laying a hand on Lauren’s thigh.

Kenzi groaned, kicking back and flipping through a fashion magazine. “Stuck with Thelma and Louise at the end of the world and all I got was this stupid Pop Tart.” She took a bite of the pastry

Lauren tucked her feet beneath her, curling up into the bucket seat. 

“Sleep,” Bo said quietly. “I’ll wake you when we get there.”  
__

The squeal of brakes made her stir. They were screaming down an unpaved road, the bumps were hardly noticeable because the Camaro was floating above the washboard ruts as it sped into the night.

Lauren rubbed her eyes and turned to admire Bo’s profile.

She turned to face her. “Won’t be long now,” Bo said with a lopsided smile.

Lauren smiled and rested her head on Bo’s shoulder, hugging her arm against herself. “I hardly remember what life was like before the outbreak.”

“I remember,” Bo nodded, unable to disguise the twinkle in her eyes.

The yawn escaped Lauren before she had the chance to suppress it. “You’ll have to tell me about it some time.”

The Camaro decelerated as the road forked. A few more miles down the line and Bo eased into their exit. The forest grew thick around the road and Bo slowed, approaching the cabin at the end of the laneway cautiously.

Bo kicked open her door and, leaving the Camaro running, lifted her sword and approached the cottage. Minutes passed before Bo returned to the car. 

“All clear. Let’s get the supplies inside.”

Hefting the supplies inside took longer than Bo planned and by the time the three women were sitting on the sofa locked inside the cabin, dawn was in full bloom. The sky was neon pink, a light dusting of clouds stretched across it.

Bo sighed. “Kenz, you’ve got first watch.”

“Of course I do.”

“Don’t get all pouty, you slept the whole way here and I’m exhausted.”

“Sure you are, I’ve heard that one before. Need I remind you about that time you and Hotpants were playing doctor while I was fending off a zombie horde?”

“They aren’t zombies,” Lauren pointed out. 

“It was only a few infected,” Bo corrected.

“Whatevs. I got this. Go on, get out of here.”

Lauren followed Bo to a bedroom in the back of cabin. The double bed was made and she could tell that despite all of Bo’s posturing, she wanted nothing more than to sleep for days. Bo crawled onto the bed and flopped over on her back. Lauren set the baseball bat beside the bed before climbing onto it. It was moments like these that impressed upon her how fleeting life can be. 

“See you tomorrow,” Bo mumbled as she faded out of consciousness. Bo respected the moment but she was always one step ahead of it. Even now, Bo welcomed the days to come as hellish as they may be.

Lauren didn’t know how long they would survive this apocalypse, but every moment that Bo held her like this gave her hope for the next day that they might share this again.   
__

When she awoke, Bo was gone. Lauren stared at the ceiling and exhaled. Another day. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, lifting the baseball bat she had come so accustomed to carrying. After her close call Bo told Lauren that she had to learn self-defense because she couldn’t lose her, too. And Lauren remembered the first time she had swung for an infected’s head. She swung with conviction and utter terror. When she landed the critical hit the sickening crack of wood on teeth made her faint. She was a doctor, she had told Bo, she should be in a lab trying to find a cure not bashing in the heads of the infected as part of a girl gang criss-crossing the countryside in a battered yellow Camaro.

But this was her life now, her life with Bo and Kenzi. It was her job to keep them safe, to be their doctor, to dress their wounds. And Lauren was okay with that. She emerged into the living room where Kenzi and Bo were playing cards in the midday sun.

Bo set her cards to the side and smiled at Lauren. “Hey.”

Sitting on the arm of the couch, Lauren brushed a hand over Bo’s hair. It was intimate touches like these that comprised their daily life. Kenzi would ‘urgh’ and ‘ew’ but they all knew she was as okay as she was ever going to be about it. Lauren peered at Bo’s cards. 

“Better watch out, Kenz.”

The human bond she had come to share with Kenzi was probably the most startling of everything that had happened. But it was this friendship that kept her calm when Bo would run off on her own and all Lauren could do was wait till she came back. Kenzi would use a colloquialism, make Lauren laugh and ultimately take her mind off of Bo. And late at night when Bo was still absent Lauren would be the one that settled Kenzi’s nerves by explaining Bo’s physiology, often calling her a “beautiful creature” much to Kenzi’s amusement.

Today, however, was like a scene from a sitcom. A succubus and ragamuffin play cards for Oreo cookies as the Yale trained doctor looks on.

“So, what’s the plan?” Lauren placed a hand on Bo’s shoulder.

“I think we should take it easy for a few days.”

“Shiz, dude, we should just stay here.”

Unfortunately, there was little to eat in their coolers or other inventory. They would always have to keep moving to collect the food they would need to survive. The apocalypse was exhausting.  
__

On day three, Lauren luxuriated in the feel of reading in bed. She knew it would be a long time before she was able to sleep in a clean bed again or had time to read. She was loathe to admit that she would miss this place. Someone else’s cabin, someone else’s bed, someone else’s book. She felt like Goldilocks.

Bo rushed into the room. Instinctually, Lauren stood up and reached for her bat.

“Easy,” Bo warned, reaching behind her and taking the bat away. 

Lauren took a step back. “What is it?”

“Settle down, slugger.” Bo wrapped her hands around her waist. “Kenzi is asleep.”

Lauren knew what that meant. Take off your clothes and tell me how you want it. Bo’s mouth descended upon her. This dance wasn’t unfamiliar, Bo had needs and Lauren was the only one who could fulfill them now, for which Lauren knew she should be grateful. That’s all she ever wanted after all: Bo to herself. Lauren was never one to go from zero to sixty in a kiss or touch but with Bo she was always easily swept up. Her clothes fell away to the floor as Bo pushed her back onto the bed. Stripping away a layer of her own clothing, Bo climbed over her. Her smile was dazzling. Even after losing everything, Bo still found a way to smile for her. To reassure her that it was okay. That they had that moment and nothing mattered beyond it.

Bo was reckless today, wild within her arms. She bucked hard against Lauren’s thigh, the staccato of her hips becoming unpredictable and captured Lauren’s mouth with her own again. Her lips were sweet and red as cherries was the last thought that crossed her mind before Bo’s fingers brushed against her.

Lauren faltered. The sound of Bo’s breath in her ear was ragged and untamed. She pressed Lauren into the mattress, pinning her shoulders. She looked up at Bo, her hips eagerly lifting off the mattress. Bo tore at her jeans, stripping her legs quickly. Her hand came to rest on Lauren’s waist. The look that flashed in Bo’s eyes was fierce and it excited Lauren. 

Bo crooked her finger around the waistband of her panties and slowly pulled them down. Carefully, she lowered herself to the bed and covered Lauren with her mouth. All conscious thought escaped her as Bo took her time, teasing her with every twist of her tongue, Lauren was lost in the plot. She looked down at Bo between her legs and the breath caught in her throat. There would come a time when she would wish that she had waited patiently for release but Lauren was hungry for it now and she pushed her hips against Bo’s mouth. 

When her hips jerked and pure release washed over her skin, still pricked with goosebumps, Lauren called her name. Her chest heaved as Bo crawled over her again, kissing her with an unmatched passion.

Lauren took a mental inventory as she always did after they had sex these days because she never knew when it would be the last time. She was warmed by her orgasm, beyond wet and exhausted. The ache in her body was always there after having sex with Bo. To be touched so deeply, that she could feel it in her bones left Lauren feeling exhilarated. 

And love. There was no way for Lauren to quantify the love that she felt. All she knew was that it was overwhelming in every respect and it was like no other love she had felt before.  
__


	2. Chapter 2

It was a bittersweet departure from the cabin in the woods. They had spent three normal days together, laughing and enjoying the company of friends and lovers. Lauren knew rationally why they had to leave, but she was still remiss to do so.

Lauren tossed a duffle bag to Bo who was repacking the trunk. When they were through stealing whatever provisions they could from the cabin, Kenzi called after Bo and Lauren. “Uh, guys. We’ve got a problem.”

A one-armed infected approached up the long driveway. Bo knew, where there was one, there were hundreds. “Get in the car.” Bo followed Kenzi and Lauren out the front door and to the car. She unscrewed the gas tank and began filling the Camaro with gas cans she had found in the garage, for the generator they hadn’t used, she presumed. It was finds like these that made their lives easier. Without the Camaro they were as good as dead. They relied on it to make speedy getaways and help them pass impossible distances. But right now Bo was using the Camaro’s latest addition: a cow catcher the she had found in a barn a few days after the outbreak. The Camaro snarled as she approached “Lefty” as Kenzi had called him and the engine revved as she took him out at the knees, sending Lefty flying end over end.

“Hang time bonus!” Kenzi exclaimed.

The two had made a game out of killing the infected. She supposed that was the only way to reconcile killing things that were once people, but Lauren didn’t subscribe to that reality. No, she saw people who were sick, people who she could help if she just had a lab instead of a baseball bat to crack against their skulls.  
__

 

“Ungh!” Kenzi grunted as the Camaro skidded to a halt. The passenger door flew open and Lauren jumped out of the car like it was on fire, Kenzi wrenched her body from the back seat and jumped out onto the concrete. Bo tossed the keys in the air and caught them with a jangle before tucking them into her jacket pocket. She started walking towards an ominous looking church. “Gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee!” Kenzi ran past up the embankment.

“Kenzi, be careful!” Bo called after her.

“It’s a church, what’s the worst that can happen?” Kenzi hollered back.

“Famous last words,” Lauren smirked as she joined Bo, walking towards the small town steeple.

It was humbling walking through a cemetery where the tombstones were more than a hundred years old. It was also more than a bit eerie to be walking through a cemetery during the zombie apocalypse. 

They approached the front doors, still ajar from Kenzi. Once inside it was easy to tell that they had used the church as a hold out against the infected. Pews were pushed against the doors, save the one from which they had entered and there were clear signs of a fight. Oddly, though, there were no bodies. But blood, there was plenty of that to go around.

“What happened here, Carrie’s prom? A town-wide exorcism?” Kenzi appeared beside Lauren and Bo.

“We should go.” Lauren pulled on Bo’s arm.

“We should look for supplies,” Bo insisted.

“Bo, I have a bad feeling about this.”

There was movement in the office and the women raised their weapons. Bo approached the door slowly; her sword sang as she unsheathed it and pushed open the door with its casing. A man sat at the desk in front of a stained glass window. The colors it cast over his face were eerie reds and blues.

He stood and gestured behind him. “Come child, my congregation awaits.” The bookcase slid open and stairs appeared. Lauren could hear the moaning, not of sick people in need of a doctor but dead people in need of a mercy killing.

“Bo,” Lauren warned, placing a hand on her arm. But Bo shook her head and followed the man down the rabbit hole. At the bottom of the stairs was a recreation room of sorts, filled with infected. 

“Hey Mister,” Kenzi started. “Your flock is a bunch of people-eating zombies.”

“They’re not zombies,” Lauren interjected.

“Not the time, Doc, not the time.” Kenzi admonished.

“Buddy, I don’t think you understand what you’re dealing with. These people, are very ill and they will hurt you if you’re not careful.” Bo tried the friendly neighbor tact.

He threw open his robes to reveal bite wounds covering his arms. He smiled. “By the glory of God, I am still alive.”

“What the shit?” Kenzi muttered.

“How is that even possible?” Bo asked.

“He’s a carrier,” Lauren said simply.

“So what? This guy gets to play Father Zombie to an adoring and might I add, bloody congregation in the basement of his church? That’s messed up.”

“Well, you seem to have everything under control here,” Lauren backed up towards the stairs, pulling the backs of Kenzi’s and Bo’s shirts along with her.

“It’s so rare that we get visitors,” the pastor said. “Won’t you stay?”

“Love to, but you know, I just crossed ‘hang with a zombie priest and his congregation’ off my bucket list the other day.”

“Keep up the good work,” Bo added as they carefully backtracked up the stairs. The women busted out of the front doors of the church and high tailed it to the Camaro.

“I got one.” Kenzi said, ducking into the back seat. “A lesbian scientist, a thief and a bisexual sex demon enter a church…”

“Who bursts into flames first?” Bo smiled.

“The scientist,” Lauren answered with a lopsided grin as they sped away. “Alchemy that be true?”   
__

They had escaped to the sewers. The horde was much too large for them to fight without firepower and Bo only had a few shotgun shells left, so she lifted the manhole cover and ushered her humans into an uncertain fate. They were knee-high in sewer water, something Kenzi was unprepared for as she complained about the state of her boots. 

Kenzi wagged a finger at them. “Bee tee dubs, we are totes stopping at the mall when we get outta here.”

“It’s the end of life as we knew it, Kenzi, nobody cares what you’re wearing.”

“I care if what I’m wearing smells like shit.”

“Shhh…” Bo hushed them, holding up a hand. They stopped walking and the water lapped against the walls. 

They were attempting to circle around the block to the Camaro from which they had become separated while Kenzi went on a field trip to the local deli looking for cured meats. In the time it took Kenzi to case Hero’s sandwich shop, the street had filled with the infected. They packed as much cured meat as their satchel could hold and headed for the manhole cover in the alley.

Now they were entrenched in the disgusts of the sewer on their way back to their lifeline, the Camaro. It was times like these that reminded them how important the yellow beast was to them. Bo shouldered the manhole cover to the side and surveyed the street. 

“We’re clear,” Bo said into the hole.

Lauren emerged from the sewers to Bo’s smile, softening the day’s experiences. Bo held a finger to her lips and nodded her head towards the main horde which was at the other end of the street, where they had come from. Bo pulled Kenzi out of the hole. They piled in the Camaro as fast as they could and Bo gunned the engine. At that, the horde came limping towards them. She plowed through the bodies like a lawn mower through grass, taking the corner at breakneck speed to clear the hood. They had made it through another impossible situation unscathed. One of these days their luck would run out.  
__

“Jesus,” Lauren said at the carnage in the empty emergency room. There was blood everywhere. On the desk, up the walls, in the waiting room. It was more blood than any one person could give. She opened her bag and pulled out gloves and masks for Bo and Kenzi. 

“Is this really necessary?” Kenzi held up the mask with two fingers.

“Let’s put it this way: even with masks and gloves I would still advise you not to touch anything.” Lauren smiled smugly.

Bo snapped on the sterile gloves and placed the mask over her face. She eyed Kenzi who, believe it or not, was still deciding on whether or not she wanted to wear the ensemble. “Just put them on,” Bo pushed Kenzi’s shoulder for effect.

Kenzi made a face and slid into the gloves before covering her nose and mouth with the mask. “Now where can I get one of those crash carts?”

Bo and Lauren looked at one another and chuckled at Kenzi’s irrepressible spirit. Bo led the way into the darkened hallways of the hospital, emergency lights having burnt out long ago. Thankfully, they had scavenged the flashlights they were using from another stop in their illustrious Camaro tour of the area. Much like this stop, there was a method to their madness.

Criss-crossing the city kept them from being cornered and it kept them abreast of the horde’s movements through the city center. Having left their home base in a blaze of glory, they now had nowhere to hang their hats, leaving them with more options. Being mobile was the key to survival and gathering gasoline was their first chore. The second was Operation: Flashlight. With little electricity still connected, they were quite literally groping in the dark and risking their lives in the process. The undead like the dark and the deeper they descended into the hospital the darker things appeared. 

There were bloody handprints on the walls of the corridor, it was disturbing and surreal and the women were really beginning to dread the moment they found the source of them.

“We need to find the pharmacy,” Lauren said to no one in particular.

“Doc, if you find an herb named Mary, you’re gonna grab her, right?” She rolled her eyes at Kenzi. Kenzi‘s eyes widened. “Right?” She looked after Bo. “I can’t even deal with her anymore.”

Lauren twirled her bat. It was one of those idiosyncratic habits she’d developed since getting in touch with her brutish side. She was utterly connected to her bat. There was an imperceptible groove that only her hand fit into and she knew it.

The unmistakable scent of the infected alerted the women to their presence. The putrid smell of sweat and feces, of blood and puss. As they approached the end of a long hallway, the unmistakable moans filtered through the walls and closed doors. Lauren looked up at the sign in front of the door and then to Bo. Bo shook her head. The pharmacy was through that corridor.

Bo kicked down the door, burying a few infected in the process and Lauren came out swinging. Another sickening crack--a broken jaw, concussed, she diagnosed. Another swing, another thud--cracked skull, she thought again. She made her way through the crowded hallway fighting at Bo and Kenzi’s side, something she never thought she’d do in her lifetime but who was she kidding, this was another lifetime.

At the end of the corridor Lauren tried the doorknob. Locked. Which was a good thing. It meant there was still medication in there. It also meant there wasn’t an infected pharmacist in there with the meds. But how to break into a room that was built to be unbreakable?

This is where Bo stepped in, quietly taking the bat from Lauren’s grasp and bashing the doorknob out of the door. She smiled and handed the bat back to Lauren who used it to push open the battered door. Once inside, she worked quickly, taking anything that might help them. Kenzi waited by the door and Bo stood inside watching Lauren work. In less than ten minutes she had taken every pain killer, anti inflammatory and a host of other practical and impractical chemical compounds. She looked up from her bag and nodded at Bo. Go time.  
__

The Camaro sped through town. Lauren was using the time to go through her bag of medication, mentally cataloguing what she had should the occasion arise that they needed it. There was some rustling and then Lauren tossed a baggy into Kenzi’s lap. 

Kenzi looked down. “No, shiz!” she said, lifting the baggy to look at its contents in the light. Bright green buds filled the baggy. “Medical miracles do exist!”

“This is only medical in the sense that I pulled it off the pharmacist’s body.” Lauren smirked. “It was a hunch. I’ve known a few pharmacists in my day, thought maybe…” Lauren shrugged.

Kenzi sniffed the baggy. “You’ve just made my millennium, Doc.”   
__

The mall, while completely selfishly motivated, was the best idea Kenzi had in weeks. It still had power for some strange reason so their food court was an extravaganza for the trio who had been eating canned peaches and Chef Boyardee for the past month. They made a trip to the camping store and grabbed a few coolers and bottled water in addition to sleeping bags and a portable camp stove. Once Kenzi was dressed in clean clothes and righteous new boots, the women began to lug the supplies back to the Camaro. 

Halfway across the mall, Bo stopped them to listen to the rustle of life or the absence of it. Bo and Kenzi drew their weapons as Lauren lifted her bat. She felt her stance settle on attack mode and gave her bat a little waggle. 

“You there! Identify yourselves!” came a disembodied voice. 

The women kept their weapons up. Bo spoke, “Easy, fella. We’re just passing through.”

“You’re gonna have to pass through me,” said the man walked around the corner and approached the trio. 

Bo cocked her head and smiled. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You think a couple of girls playing vigilante have a shot in hell against us?” he said revealing his two partners in crime. Big guys, bigger than the speaker by far.

“I do. Now if you’ll excuse us.” Bo pulled a cooler behind her as she approached the man. In a flash he made a move on Bo. She dropped the cooler and her hand shot out, wrapping around the man’s neck. It was as good a time as any, Lauren thought as Bo drained the man to within an inch of his life.

“What are you?” one of his partners could be heard saying before Bo drained him, too. She must have been so hungry, Lauren watched as her eyes, a brilliant blue, shimmered as she took in their chi. She was unsure of what her next move would be and to her surprise, Bo continued to feast on the survivors. While Lauren abhorred abject violence, she was somehow okay with Bo’s brand of killing, or almost killing as it were.

Every time they came in contact with other survivors it was always the same. If they were friendly, Bo would gain their trust and then the day would come when she would have to feed. She would always try to keep herself away from the survivors, knowing full well what she was capable of. That didn’t change the fact that Bo had gone weeks without a feed or feeding on Lauren until she couldn’t take it anymore. They both needed their strength if they were going to survive the seemingly impossible post-apocalyptic world and the harsh reality of that is Bo had to feed and she had to feed off of innocents, though on days like today she was relieved to get a three-fer of baddies to quell her urges.  
__


	3. Chapter 3

The car was packed, they were fed and it was only midday. Time to regroup. They parked down by the waterfront, where few infected gathered and tried to enjoy the day in spite of everything. Lauren was laying on the hood of the Camaro, reading a book she had found in the mall. Bo was feeling frisky and devoured her with her eyes, the glint in them telling the full story. She hopped onto the hood and slid beside Lauren. 

“How’s your book?” she asked conversationally.

Lauren smiled and nodded at Bo. There wasn’t much to say about it, after all she had just started reading it.

Kenzi hopped up on the hood from the other side, sandwiching Lauren in the middle. “Whatcha reading?” She lay the book in her lap, half-annoyed. 

At this onslaught of bored compatriots, Lauren had to smile. There was no use being mad that she couldn’t even find time to read during the apocalypse because what did she expect, really? Instead, she embraced the journey she was on, with the characters she was on it with.

The water lapped at the shore and a cool breeze blew across the Camaro, dulling the heat they felt from the midday sun. A small contingent of infected approached.

Kenzi pointed at Bo. “Zombieball?” She pointed at Lauren. “Zombieball?”

Zombieball was played with baseball rules, however many swings they took determines the placement on the bases. One hit was a home run, two hits was a triple, three hits, a double, and four hits, a single. Kenzi popped the trunk and sifted through a pile of weapons as the zombie troupe approached ever so slowly.

Brandishing a golf club, Kenzi went running toward the infected that had broken away from the pack. “Fore!” she shouted before swinging for its head. The horrendous splat was heard for a mile away. Kenzi celebrated with a hip thrust and jazz hands as only Kenzi could and returned to the Camaro. “It’s all you Bo-Bo.”

Bo was a purist and therefore always borrowed Lauren’s bat during Zombieball. She walked down the embankment toward the six or so infected that approached. Separating one from the pack, Bo teed up on its head and dropped him like a ton of bricks.

“Flawless victory!” Kenzi exclaimed. Truth be told Bo and Lauren only played Zombieball to keep Kenzi happy. Lauren didn’t derive much joy from smashing in skulls unless her life was in danger and she tried not to memorize the face of the thing that once was a person when she teed up on a straggler. “Oh, damn!” Kenzi covered her mouth as Lauren flattened the infected with one swing. “You’ve been practicing, Doc.”

Lauren wouldn’t call it practice so much as practical usage. Since their world had gone black, Lauren had to adapt, to become a killer before the healer that she was. It was a difficult transition but life as she knew it depended on it.

Bo could tell that Lauren needed a break from all the carnage. “Kenzi,” Bo said, “Would you mind retiring the side?”

“Would I?” Kenzi’s eyes grew bigger as she walked off toward the infected that were still standing.

Lauren put a hand on Bo’s knee. “How are you doing?”

Bo smiled like she had never been asked that before.

“I’m good. I mean, there’s this,” she gestured at the infected and Kenzi taking swings at them. “But there’s also this,” she motioned at the space between them. “I’m so glad to be with you.”

“We’ve lost a lot,” Lauren said with a nod. What she wanted to say was how could they ever truly believe that they weren’t going to die out there?

When Dyson turned, Bo had been inconsolable. He had hidden his wound from Bo, from Lauren and so when Dyson stood, growling as he flipped a table in the Dal, they were all caught by surprise. Dyson was the first Fae to illustrate the deadly effects of the toxin on his system when, eyes aglow, he self-immolated right there in the middle of the Dal. Lauren had held Bo as she sobbed and tried to decide how she felt about it. All she could remember thinking was “Asshole, you asshole.” He was an asshole for not even giving them the chance to try to save him, for not even giving Bo the chance to say goodbye, and for not even having the decency to leave the establishment all of his friends were occupying as they tried to avoid infection. But Lauren didn’t have an opinion about it if Bo asked. Life was literally too short these days and Lauren wasn’t going to spend her last hours fighting with Bo over Dyson.

It was amazing that a genetically engineered virus could kill a thousand years of evolution, Lauren thought. Science was amazing, but in the wrong hands, she shook her head. It was wasted. A waste of life and that was contrary to everything she had ever learned as a doctor. The purpose of science was for the betterment of society. It was not to arm rogue messengers of the apocalypse and begin a mass extinction.

“Ladies? We have a situation developing,” Kenzi called from a distance.

Bo looked up and saw a much bigger horde approaching, one that would not so patiently wait to be taken out one by one in a rousing game of Zombieball. Kenzi scuttled up the hill to the car and reached into the back seat. She pulled out a slingshot and a satchel full of marbles. Taking one marble at a time, Kenzi took out the infected Fae before they could get close enough to explode. She pulled back the sling and fired. A large boom was felt as much as it was heard as Kenzi cleared out a chunk of the horde. She aimed again, hitting the infected right between its glowing eyes. He left a crater that the zombies that hadn’t been blown up, fell into. Unfortunately, as cunning a technique as Kenzi’s was, it left a little to be desired in the stealth department and the infected were beginning to close in from the other direction at the noise.

“Wrap it up, Kenz.” Bo called.

So much for the quiet afternoon on the waterfront Lauren had been promised. They were on the move again.   
__

Bo’s arms were wrapped around her and she felt safe there but sleep still eluded Lauren. The loss of life had been astronomical. The fact that the city wasn’t overrun by the infected gave her hope that the healthy had been evacuated. It also made her fearful of the possibility that the infected had been evacuated, too. They didn’t have access to television news or radio broadcasts anymore, they were all static and Lauren could only surmise that they had run or that they were overrun. There were few happy endings Lauren could conceive anymore.

She stared at Bo’s features in the dark and appreciated, truly appreciated her beauty. Lauren never knew what she did to deserve Bo, but she was beginning to understand why she deserved her. Bo had taught her more about humanity than any other Fae or human had. She was coming of age under Lauren’s watchful eye and she never wavered. Human’s were her companions, they were her best friend and her lover. 

Bo roused. Perhaps she had been staring too long, too intently. “You okay?” she whispered into the darkness.

They were crashed at a motel, the Camaro hidden by over brush a ways away. Kenzi was asleep on the double bed beside the one they lay on. The drapes were pulled tight and a chair was butted up against the doorknob. They were as safe as they could be in their situation. 

“Yeah,” she replied, unable to qualify what she was feeling. “Can’t sleep.” Lauren said simply.

Lauren couldn’t sleep most nights. Their constant movement kept Lauren in a state of unrest. Her life had gone from a routine scientific existence to a chaotic brutish call to arms. She knew Bo understood and, god love her, she tried to make things as routine as possible to help Lauren with the transition. Transition. This was all there was left for her. Never again would she look into a microscope or prepare a slide, her lot in life was now to bash the heads in of pseudo-zombies. It was hard not to feel depressed. The one thing that never wavered, that she clung to, was her love for Bo. It had carried her this far and if she was lucky enough to wake in the morning she knew it would carry her through another day. 

“I love you,” Lauren whispered into the dark.

“I love you, too,” came Bo’s reply. “Now, sleep. I‘ll see you tomorrow.”   
__

The morning seemed so far removed from where the three women stood now. They found themselves in an apartment building looking for shelter, but found a hive instead and in the process of fighting the horde, they were overwhelmed and wounded. They made their way up the stairwell to the roof and barricaded themselves there.

Lauren inspected the bite on her forearm. The teeth marks were deep and she was sure she was infected. Kenzi was bitten on her leg and Bo, who appeared to be on the receiving end of the worst of it, held her neck to slow the bleeding. Lauren retrieved a stack of gauze from her bag and applied it to Bo’s neck.

“You’re a mess,” Lauren said, trying to keep it light.

“Looks like this is where we part ways.” Bo said in her best cavalier tone.

“Nobody’s going anywhere.” Lauren checked beneath the gauze, the wound bled still. 

“Jesus,” Kenzi paced. “What just happened here?”

“We got our asses handed to us,” Bo grunted in pain as Lauren pressed harder.

“I guess that’s my cue.” Kenzi reached into her knapsack and pulled out a bible. 

“Kenzi, what the hell?” Bo griped, holding her neck.

Kenzi opened the book and ripped a large strip off a page. She dug around in her bag again and pulled out the stinky little baggy. Lauren smiled and shook her head as Kenzi crumbled the green herb onto the paper torn from the bible. As sacrilegious as it seemed to light the bible page afire while smoking illegal substances, the trio welcomed one last memory. An absurdity. A fleeting thought they might share as their last breaths are but exhales into the wind. Lauren scooted closer to Bo as Kenzi prepared their last supper as it were. Bo took Lauren’s hand into her own and threaded their fingers together. 

A lighter sparked and soon the unmistakable scent of marijuana encompassed them. Kenzi took a long drag and looked out on the skyline as she exhaled, passing the joint to Bo. Acceptance of their situation spread between them as they continued to hand it off.

The pot had done the trick, Lauren’s head swam. Bo looked at her sadly. This was where it ended for them. Badly wounded, on a rooftop in a city that hadn’t done either of them any favors. They would die today, in each others arms and no amount of wishing or hoping was going to change that.

“Lauren,” Bo finally spoke. Their eyes met only briefly as Lauren couldn’t bear to see the pain in her eyes. “You know, I was just getting used to the idea that I was going to live for hundreds of years--A zombie apocalypse wasn’t even on my radar.”

“I miss my lab,” Lauren moaned. “I was never cut out for this.”

“I dunno, if you ask me you were way better at this than that doctor thing.” Kenzi couldn’t have dodged the eye roll if she tried. “I mean, I miss my shoes,” Kenzi corrected.

Lauren looked down at her arm, still oozing from the bite she suffered in the stairwell, Bo still held her neck, blood flowing from her wound, and Kenzi limped across the rooftop, leaving a bloody trail from the bite on her ankle. They were a mess and Lauren was having a hard time determining how long they had left. Bo was sure to bleed out soon, her breathing had become labored as they sat together on the rooftop. Kenzi seemed fine, able to limp from ledge to ledge waiting for inevitability to take hold. And Lauren, well, she fared somewhere in between.

The sky turned from a dusky purple to a vibrant pink as the sun began to rise. Kenzi sat on the edge of the building, feet dangling precariously over the side. Bo led Lauren to Kenzi‘s side and sat beside her, straddling the ledge. Lauren stood behind them both, looking out over the city. The cramp in her stomach became overpowering. Is this what it felt like to turn into one of them, she wondered. All thought went out of her head when she heard Bo sputter. She was coughing up blood, it wouldn’t be long now.

She put a hand on Bo’s back and smoothed over it. 

“It’s time, Kenz,” Bo turned and looked up at Lauren.

“You’re fine, you’re not going anywhere,” Kenzi protested.

“Kenzi…” Lauren warned.

Lauren watched as Kenzi‘s denial finally dissipated. “This isn’t happening. I’m not ready for this. You can’t leave me. You promised.” Her lip trembled as the tears that were threatening to fall finally broke loose and trickled down her cheeks.

“You’re the best little sister I never had.” Bo brushed the bangs from Kenzi’s eyes. “I‘ll see you tomorrow, kiddo.” Bo smiled, reaching out a hand to comfort her. Kenzi sniffled. Lauren bent over in pain, clutching her stomach. “Lauren--” Bo started to move to help her but couldn’t find the strength. “Come here.”

Lauren kneeled beside Bo who held Kenzi with her other arm. She smoothed a hand over Lauren’s hair and held her against her chest. Lauren could hear Bo’s heart beat gradually slow as the sun came up over the city. 

Bo struggled to breathe. “I love you,” Bo whispered to no one in particular. “Lauren?” she asked, “tell me again about when you fell in love with me.”

Lauren smiled and sat up, Bo rest her head on her shoulder as she began to talk. “I loved you from the moment we met…” she started, pausing to share one last kiss with Bo. Their lips came together as they had so many times before but the soft press grew still as Bo’s final breath blew across her cheek.

“See you tomorrow,” Lauren managed to choke out as Kenzi collapsed into her arms.  
__

Fin.


End file.
